I Like Spoilers

[Togath]

I like spoilers. I honestly do. Knowing what the plot of a movie, game, book, or whatever helps me enjoy it more, and judge better if I might regret spending time on it.
Plot twists, cool moments, deaths, etc.
And I got to wondering... how common is being like this? Anyone else here find their enjoyment of stories enhanced by "spoilers"? I mean, I do get that there really are plenty of people who dislike them, but then there are the people who are the flipside like me, who seek them out. Though we seem much less common, which can sometimes make finding a good review for stuff that fits my desires harder.:smallredface:

[danzibr]

Oh man. I'm the exact opposite. I avoid spoilers so hard I won't even read the back of the box or watch trailers. Granted, that narrows what kind of stuff I buy.

But then again, this only applies to stuff I know I'm interested in. Take FFXV for example. I know next to nothing about the game, then saw some blurb about reclaiming your kingdom. What!? I lose my kingdom!?

[Togath]

I do respect your view, but I do still find it kind of interesting.
Does anyone know of any studies as to why some people do and don't like spoilers?
Like, just as you avoid looking at the back of boxes, I tend to skip straight to looking up the plot on wikis.
It's like... odd mirror images sort of.

[warty goblin]

Spoilers make some things less good. Mysteries you only want to read once for instance. And they can sometimes diminish the pleasure of a first time through.

But for a fair number of things, I find knowing how it turns out can improve the overall experience. You lose suspense in some capacity to be sure*, but you can gain so very much in seeing how the story builds and the craftsmanship of the author as it builds towards the end. If the ending is good, this makes the often darker middle easier to bear. If the ending is bad, then you get the emotion I think may be the most underused in modern storytelling, dread. A lot of tragedies work better when you know beforehand that they end horribly. In the hands of a good author, this knowledge becomes a great and agonizing weight, as you watch the hero struggle and come so close to success, all the while knowing that they will fail.

In some cases I don't think a story even works if you don't know the ending beforehand. The Iliad is an obvious reference. If you don't know how the Trojan War ends, then it's a very random little snippet. The unknowing reader would be left most unsatisfied. But if you know the ending, then suddenly the snippet is essentially complete, and works entirely on the dread and anticipation of things that don't even happen in the text. Troy will fall, and Achilles' death is by the end little more than a bloody formality, presaged by the deaths of Patroklus and Hektor.

The Lord of the Rings is one of the only more modern stories I can think of that works like this. Since of course LoTR was not a known myth at the time of its publication, Tolkien very cleverly added a frame narrative. The observant reader knows that the Quest succeeds in some capacity by dint of Concerning Hobbits, and indeed there are countless other examples of the story spoiling itself in advance. This also I think allows Tolkien to make the story enormously darker than would otherwise work particularly well. We know the Quest succeeds, but at some point we realize this still means Frodo can fail, as of course he does. Think about how terribly unsatisfying most stories would feel, if the big reveal at the end is that the willpower of good people is not sufficient, that the task is too great and you will fail without knowing the world is still delivered from evil. There's probably some very substantial ways in which this mirrors Tolkien's beliefs, but that would be straying too far into religion.

In the construction where you know the endpoint, the pleasure isn't in what happens next, but how it is achieved.


*Although skilled enough delivery can do a lot to overcome this. I know how the first few months of World War 1 proceed, but The Guns of August is still suspenseful, because of how well Tuchman portrays the sheer desperation of both sides, and how close the Germans came to pulling it off.

[2D8HP]

Think about how terribly unsatisfying most stories would feel, if the big reveal at the end is that the willpower of good people is not sufficient, that the task is too great and you will fail without knowing the world is still delivered from evil....


Sounds like ASoIaF!

Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about spoilers, as I remember reading the desk jacket of the sequel for a novel that I hadn't finished, and wishing I hadn't so I could be surprised, but I also often skip ahead to later pages, and then go back.

[Togath]

Spoilers make some things less good. Mysteries you only want to read once for instance. And they can sometimes diminish the pleasure of a first time through.

But for a fair number of things, I find knowing how it turns out can improve the overall experience. You lose suspense in some capacity to be sure*, but you can gain so very much in seeing how the story builds and the craftsmanship of the author as it builds towards the end. If the ending is good, this makes the often darker middle easier to bear. If the ending is bad, then you get the emotion I think may be the most underused in modern storytelling, dread. A lot of tragedies work better when you know beforehand that they end horribly. In the hands of a good author, this knowledge becomes a great and agonizing weight, as you watch the hero struggle and come so close to success, all the while knowing that they will fail.

In some cases I don't think a story even works if you don't know the ending beforehand. The Iliad is an obvious reference. If you don't know how the Trojan War ends, then it's a very random little snippet. The unknowing reader would be left most unsatisfied. But if you know the ending, then suddenly the snippet is essentially complete, and works entirely on the dread and anticipation of things that don't even happen in the text. Troy will fall, and Achilles' death is by the end little more than a bloody formality, presaged by the deaths of Patroklus and Hektor.

The Lord of the Rings is one of the only more modern stories I can think of that works like this. Since of course LoTR was not a known myth at the time of its publication, Tolkien very cleverly added a frame narrative. The observant reader knows that the Quest succeeds in some capacity by dint of Concerning Hobbits, and indeed there are countless other examples of the story spoiling itself in advance. This also I think allows Tolkien to make the story enormously darker than would otherwise work particularly well. We know the Quest succeeds, but at some point we realize this still means Frodo can fail, as of course he does. Think about how terribly unsatisfying most stories would feel, if the big reveal at the end is that the willpower of good people is not sufficient, that the task is too great and you will fail without knowing the world is still delivered from evil. There's probably some very substantial ways in which this mirrors Tolkien's beliefs, but that would be straying too far into religion.

In the construction where you know the endpoint, the pleasure isn't in what happens next, but how it is achieved.


*Although skilled enough delivery can do a lot to overcome this. I know how the first few months of World War 1 proceed, but The Guns of August is still suspenseful, because of how well Tuchman portrays the sheer desperation of both sides, and how close the Germans came to pulling it off.
Far better put than I ever could have.:smallsmile:
Knowing the end to some movies, books, and games is sometimes essential to really be able to appreciate the plot the first time through(for instance, cases where knowing the end or some major event lets you suddenly see foreshadowing you could not have before. Dracula does some. There's much more foreshadowing you can spot if you know Dracula is a vampire beforehand, and common elements of the type of vampire he depicts).
Something that relies heavily on mystery can indeed be better knowing less, though in some cases knowing "That butler did it!" can lead to you trying to work on how and why. Of course, that requires the writer to actually provide hints that a clever reader(or viewer or player) might spot, so it certainly doesn't apply to all such works.
The works you listed are good examples of using snippets of knowledge to enhance the experience.
Admittedly, where it seems like such tools could be used best, and least frequently are used, seem to be games. If you know that playing through this dark slower part of the plot will get you closer to an exciting event, you may be more motivated to keep playing, while having some pre knowledge of a darker event can also lead very well to a use of dread(knowing a character betrays you can lead to a build of dread and/or excitement as the moment approaches, like watching a clock count down the last few seconds to new years.).

[Rynjin]

I generally like an unsullied experience in media because I want to go in with as few preconceptions as possible. If I don't expect anything, I can view the story as it comes and make a value judgment based on JUST what is shown as it is being shown.

This increases the more invested I am in a particular creator's work or a franchise, and is generally only completely broken when I am starting to get bored by something and want to know if the payoff is worth the build up (i.e. the media isn't very good anyway) or something happens (like the death of a character that is the main reason I am watching the show) that could potentially mar my interest in something and I want to know whether they get resurrected or something (which usually ties back to the same reasoning as the first. It's not very good but I like it for one character). Misfits is an example of this latter. I stopped watching after season 2 because my favorite character left and was replaced by an unlikable prick. Once I learned favorite character wasn't returning, I dropped the show.

Certain specific franchises are almost a religious experience in how I consume them for various reasons (nostalgia, mostly) and these in particular I shut myself away from major spoiler territory because I want to experience it as if it was brand new even if I'm 3 games behind in the series. Lookin' at you, Kingdom Hearts. You beautifully frustrating multi-platform masterpiece.

[BWR]

Mostly I don't mind spoilers. There are some works which should remain unspoiled because the twist/reveal works so much better that way (Watchmen and I am Legend, for instance) but in general it doesn't matter. If a piece of entertainment is good, it is usually good regardless of what you know about it unless the twist is the important bit of the story (and in most cases it isn't). It's not like spoiler-haters think this way about everything.
You watch Titanic or "A night to remember", you know the boat is going to sink. You watch "Der Untergang", you know the Nazis lose. You watch Passion of the Christ, you know someone is gonna die.
And if you are surprised at events in a book <-> film adaptation, that's probably a bad thing.

[BiblioRook]

Spoilers make some things less good. Mysteries you only want to read once for instance.

I greatly disagree with this here. Some things, even things that rely heavily on the ending being a surprise to the reader/viewer (if not especially) can still be greatly enjoyable if that surprise has already been spoiled, at least it is when such thing is well made. Because when you know where things are going suddenly all the little hints and nods you would have completely missed start becoming really apparent and that is a certain kind of satisfaction in itself.

[Togath]

I greatly disagree with this here. Some things, even things that rely heavily on the ending being a surprise to the reader/viewer (if not especially) can still be greatly enjoyable if that surprise has already been spoiled, at least it is when such thing is well made. Because when you know where things are going suddenly all the little hints and nods you would have completely missed start becoming really apparent and that is a certain kind of satisfaction in itself.

True! This is my personal view~
Though... admittedly, it does rely on the author actually giving hints and nods.
A scene with a howling dog, lots of drinking of water, and some paprika near the start of Dracula for instance gives a hint of what's to come. While if you go in not knowing Dracula's a vampire, and vampires sometimes have a connection to wolves, you'll miss the hint.

[Draconi Redfir]

i really don't care about spoilers myself, but what really gets on my nerves is people who freak out about non-spoilers.

I'll say something as innocent as "The Choice you need to make near the end of Bastion really gets me" or even as basic as "The Broadsword in the new Zelda title is cool"

and they just flip out! Shouting "Woaaah SPOILERZ!!!" at the most basic stuff that either you learn in the first five minutes of the game, is a simple game mechanic, or is so carefully worded as vaugely as possible that it's impossible to tell what it's actually about.

These are the kind of people who think "Link will wear green in the new zelda" or "At some point someone uses a lightsaber in star wars" are spoilers. and they just irk me :/

[Togath]

I think they do to about 99% of folks.
Aaadmittedly, my boyfriend is one, so I've gotten kinda desensitized to it. ^_^;
He freaked out a bit when I said weapons break in the new Zelda, and yes, he sometimes wears green.
One's a "this is just a very very base mechanic" and the other is "literally all of the promotional art even shows it, as have all the other games, why would this surprise you?".

[LughSpear]

I have a love-hate relationship with Spoilers.

[Rodin]

I greatly disagree with this here. Some things, even things that rely heavily on the ending being a surprise to the reader/viewer (if not especially) can still be greatly enjoyable if that surprise has already been spoiled, at least it is when such thing is well made. Because when you know where things are going suddenly all the little hints and nods you would have completely missed start becoming really apparent and that is a certain kind of satisfaction in itself.

Still doesn't apply for me. If a work has tons of subtle foreshadowing I much prefer to watch the work twice rather than being spoiled. The first time, I get the joy of being surprised by the plot twists. The second time through I'm enjoying catching all the things I missed - and having watched without spotting them is important to that experience. It's the little "A-HA!" moments that give joy on subsequent watchings, and you wouldn't get that if you just watch knowing the ending because you don't know whether you would have caught it on the initial watch.

[KillingAScarab]

I like spoilers. I honestly do. Knowing what the plot of a movie, game, book, or whatever helps me enjoy it more, and judge better if I might regret spending time on it.
Plot twists, cool moments, deaths, etc.
And I got to wondering... how common is being like this? Anyone else here find their enjoyment of stories enhanced by "spoilers"? I mean, I do get that there really are plenty of people who dislike them, but then there are the people who are the flipside like me, who seek them out. Though we seem much less common, which can sometimes make finding a good review for stuff that fits my desires harder.:smallredface:I have one relative who will seek out the plot to a movie before seeing it. The part I wonder about is how much of that desire to do so comes from having a handheld device which makes that accessible as you're walking into a movie theater.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Still doesn't apply for me. If a work has tons of subtle foreshadowing I much prefer to watch the work twice rather than being spoiled.

Absolutely.

[danzibr]

i really don't care about spoilers myself, but what really gets on my nerves is people who freak out about non-spoilers.

I'll say something as innocent as "The Choice you need to make near the end of Bastion really gets me" or even as basic as "The Broadsword in the new Zelda title is cool"

and they just flip out! Shouting "Woaaah SPOILERZ!!!" at the most basic stuff that either you learn in the first five minutes of the game, is a simple game mechanic, or is so carefully worded as vaugely as possible that it's impossible to tell what it's actually about.

These are the kind of people who think "Link will wear green in the new zelda" or "At some point someone uses a lightsaber in star wars" are spoilers. and they just irk me :/
I guess I might irritate you. The broadsword, green, and lightsaber things wouldn't bother me, but the bastion choice thing would.

[Winter_Wolf]

I too like spoilers. Mostly. I won't care if someone lets one slip, and I do look up plot summaries and the like for a great many things. Notable exceptions include things like the movie Dream House, which is something that you can only really watch once. Well technically you can watch it more often, but unless you're going to analyze the crap out of it or are admiring the cinematography, it's mostly going to be a lesser experience. On the other hand, if I'd have read a detailed spoiler about Paranormal Activity 3, I'd have saved myself both money and time.

But mostly I'm for spoilers, and am glad that the desktop version of this site allows me to toggle them on by default. Mobile either doesn't or I turned it off before I realized I could hide all signatures and never figured out how to turn it back on in mobile.

Spoilers for A Song of Ice and Fire are probably the only reason I gave the books a shot after what happened to Ned in the HBO series. Because they failed abysmally at a couple of cues that would have made it less WTFF?* and "yeah, I guess that makes sense."

*the first F is for "flying".

[Draconi Redfir]

I guess I might irritate you. The broadsword, green, and lightsaber things wouldn't bother me, but the bastion choice thing would.

But here's the thing though, you don't know what the choice IS. it's worded so vaugely that for all you know it could be a choice between coffee or tea in the morning. It might not even be a mandatory mechanichal choice at all! Maybe there's just a fork in the road and both paths have sweet loot at the end of it and you don't know wich one to get first! How could it possibly be a spoiler if nothing about the game is spoiled?

[Rodin]

But here's the thing though, you don't know what the choice IS. it's worded so vaugely that for all you know it could be a choice between coffee or tea in the morning. It might not even be a mandatory mechanichal choice at all! Maybe there's just a fork in the road and both paths have sweet loot at the end of it and you don't know wich one to get first! How could it possibly be a spoiler if nothing about the game is spoiled?

The fact that there is a choice, and a major one that left you affected well after you completed the game - that there is a pretty major spoiler for a game that didn't have such choices earlier. It would have irritated me to be told that as well. It isn't a minor detail like what color socks the hero is wearing, it's a major defining moment in the game.

[Draconi Redfir]

The fact that there is a choice, and a major one that left you affected well after you completed the game - that there is a pretty major spoiler for a game that didn't have such choices earlier. It would have irritated me to be told that as well. It isn't a minor detail like what color socks the hero is wearing, it's a major defining moment in the game.

But again, you don't know it's a major thing. "it really gets me" could mean anything, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry, i found it annoying, etc. There is no information being given about the choice itself or what it is. And with so many games these days having at least two endings, how could it even be unexpected?

Again the choice might not even be a mechanical or plot-related thing, maybe it's something i personally experianced but you wouldn't because in my mind it was a decision whereas in yours it would be instinct, or you didn't even realize or never discovered whatever the seccond option was. Since no information about said "choice" is being given, there is no way to spoil any kind of information about the game.

[Hiro Protagonest]

And with so many games these days having at least two endings, how could it even be unexpected?

...

Please don't use this argument.

[Aedilred]

I think, in some ways, it depends.

For those people who are used to knowing the plot before they experiene a film/book/etc, whether they've looked it up deliberately or have learned via other means, it's easy to forget the pure adrenaline rush that comes from entering a fictional scenario not knowing how it's going to turn out, or something unexpected happening suddenly. In the case of the first Lord of the Rings, I remember my cousin being jaw-droppingly flabbergasted about Gandalf. That's an experience you can't get back if you have really any idea of what's coming. I was a little disappointed in fact that his appearance in the next film was then spoiled as heavily as possible in promotional media so LotR virgins wouldn't get the same experience again.

Similarly, I remember the intense gut-clenching tension at the end of some of my favourite Sergio Leone westerns, as characters entered a duel and I had no idea which of them, if any, would survive. How harrowing The Wicker Man is at its end, when you're waiting for something to happen that never does. And the way I felt at the end of The Departed, for instance -
the sudden and out-of-the-blue way Costigan was killed, the feeling of despair that you get from thinking Sullivan is just going to get away with it all, the elation when Dignam suddenly returns in the final scene.

All those films are good enough that I would watch them again, and in most cases have done, more than once. And it's certainly true that knowing what's coming means I can focus more on how well constructed they are, observe the craft of the director and the cinematography, and appreciate them more as pieces of cinematic art. It is not necessarily a worse experience. But it is a different experience and (LotR aside, as I'd read the books there many years before the film was released) I would be sorry if it were one I had missed out on. It's also, I think, a more detached experience: sitting back and admiring the film rather than being caught up in it.

Perhaps the most vulnerable medium to spoilers is comedy. Jokes work best when they are unexpected and in context. In a good comedy they'll also be scripted in such a way as to be as funny as possible and performed with perfect comic timing. If someone tells you all the best jokes second-hand before you go in, or you see some of the jokes in the trailer, in either sense removed from context, you're getting an inferior version of the joke first time round, and then when you get to see them done properly you know the punchline ahead of time so you're generally less amused. Either way, the experience - which in that medium is really all about making you laugh - is not as good as it would have been spoiler-free. The best comedies still hold up and remain entertaining on a rewatch, certainly, but they almost invariably suffer from diminishing returns the more times the jokes are told.

On the other hand, in some media they are pretty much invariably improved by knowing what's coming. Stories based on myth and legend are usually written or performed with the expectation that the audience knows what's going to happen. I don't think anybody goes to watch classic theatre or opera expecting to be unspoiled, and once you free yourself from having to follow what's going on it's much easier to get into what you're actually there for, which is the language/music/performance.

There are also some things where I think they are now sufficiently well-known that they don't really count as spoilers. Pretty much everyone knows what happens at the end of King Kong. But it's still best to err on the side of caution: such knowledge might not be as widespread as you assume, and in such regards innocence is a precious thing not to be casually overruled.

So I'm not going to judge anyone for liking spoilers. It does however make me angry when people are careless, or worse, deliberate about open spoilers because I don't really share that view, and it's a one-way street. They are free to spoil my experience as much as they like and even if I wanted to I can't retaliate. So I would recommend people show some consideration, and no, saying "spoilers" and then telling them without giving anyone a chance to tell you to stop/stop reading/listening , doesn't count. Nor does blurting it out and then going "oh, spoilers btw". After all, let us remember the etymology of "spoiler" - from 'to spoil: to damage severely or harm, diminish or impair the quality of", etc. They are by default presumed to be things which affect people's experience of media negatively, and it would be wise to keep that in mind even if personally you don't mind that happening to you.

[danzibr]

But here's the thing though, you don't know what the choice IS. it's worded so vaugely that for all you know it could be a choice between coffee or tea in the morning. It might not even be a mandatory mechanichal choice at all! Maybe there's just a fork in the road and both paths have sweet loot at the end of it and you don't know wich one to get first! How could it possibly be a spoiler if nothing about the game is spoiled?

The fact that there is a choice, and a major one that left you affected well after you completed the game - that there is a pretty major spoiler for a game that didn't have such choices earlier. It would have irritated me to be told that as well. It isn't a minor detail like what color socks the hero is wearing, it's a major defining moment in the game.

But again, you don't know it's a major thing. "it really gets me" could mean anything, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry, i found it annoying, etc. There is no information being given about the choice itself or what it is. And with so many games these days having at least two endings, how could it even be unexpected?

Again the choice might not even be a mechanical or plot-related thing, maybe it's something i personally experianced but you wouldn't because in my mind it was a decision whereas in yours it would be instinct, or you didn't even realize or never discovered whatever the seccond option was. Since no information about said "choice" is being given, there is no way to spoil any kind of information about the game.
What game are you talking about, anyway? Dragon Age?

Anyway, it's not the choice thing that would bother me. It's the bastion thing. For example, I read what the last level was in The Last of Us well before I was there, so when I got to a new level, I knew it wasn't the last level until I got to that one, then I knew the game was almost over. so for the bastion business, when I'd get/return there, I'd think oh crap there's a major choice about to happen and the game is nearly over.

[Winter_Wolf]

I think something that helps me regarding spoilers is a generally spotty memory. It's entirely within reason that I'll encounter a spoiler, forget about it, and only recall that I should have known that after seeing the part that got spoiled.

Also I tend to have little time for reading new material or watching films, and I quit television a few years ago (best decision ever). It's probable that reading a plot summary or spoilers is literally the only contact I'll have with something that's a work of fiction. I can at least honestly say, "never read it/seen it" when people ask me. The corollary though is that having never seen it I may end up asking a question like, "is that the one where the protagonist turns out to be the bad guy?" and just wreck the asker's day because they didn't get there yet.

On the plus side, it only happens once or twice and the person learns to avoid talking about certain kinds of things with me. If we literally cannot find other things to talk about or do, we're not well suited to each other's company anyway and we'll be happier not talking to each other.

Tangentially, I had an annoying coworker who would just NOT shut the hell up. The great thing about inconsiderate dropping of spoilers, you can quickly rid yourself of a jaw flapping time waster very quickly and with minimal effort. It's not a recommended practice to make friends with coworkers, though. There was a certain malicious gleeful satisfaction to be had, and that was just grand.

[Draconi Redfir]

one kind of spoilers i don't like: The accidental kind.

i couldn't remember the name of a city for a TV show i'm watching, so i looked it up, and right beneath the name of the city itself, is a descriiption of how it's destroyed, something that hasn't happened yet from where i am.

simmilarly i looked up a character in a D&D adventure path awhile ago because i wanted to see what their alignment was, AAAND it opened up with saying "yo this guy is secretly a demon/lich/vampire/whatever" with no warning. so i had to keep that to myself until the campain actually reached the point where it was reveiled.

i just wanted to know some small little trivia about the thing! i didn't want to know EVERYTHING about it!:smallfrown:

[danzibr]

one kind of spoilers i don't like: The accidental kind.

i couldn't remember the name of a city for a TV show i'm watching, so i looked it up, and right beneath the name of the city itself, is a descriiption of how it's destroyed, something that hasn't happened yet from where i am.

simmilarly i looked up a character in a D&D adventure path awhile ago because i wanted to see what their alignment was, AAAND it opened up with saying "yo this guy is secretly a demon/lich/vampire/whatever" with no warning. so i had to keep that to myself until the campain actually reached the point where it was reveiled.

i just wanted to know some small little trivia about the thing! i didn't want to know EVERYTHING about it!:smallfrown:
Oh yeah. That's mega frustrating. I've done the exact same thing. It's like srsly internet?

[DataNinja]

Oh yeah. That's mega frustrating. I've done the exact same thing. It's like srsly internet?

Even worse is when you've found something, usually a show, that's been out for a while, and you've done a pretty good job of making sure to avoid any spoilers that might occur... and then YouTube decides that, because algorithms, you'd be interested in a video titled something like "Y's Death." Or something similarly plot-relevant.

Or, and this one happens a lot to me, if you're trying to go in blind to a new, hyped up video game, you get the videos analyzing every trailer and whatnot, putting exactly whatever's discovered in the title and thumbnail.

I'm generally fine for spoiling things for myself if I know I'm never going to get into something, and I want to be able to at least know what people are discussing. But, all I'm saying is, I want to at least have the choice to walk into things fresh and unsullied.

[Winter_Wolf]

I think it's still possible, really. Skyrim was out for many a year before I'd even heard of it, and even having it described to me by an acquaintance I still wound up with a fresh unsullied experience. And got my ass gnawed off by two super wolves. Two. Wolves. It was fun, though.

My point being, you don't really need to go out of your way to avoid spoilers, and it almost seems like the harder you (or I, or anyone) try to avoid them, the more of a magnet you end up for them.

But hey, I'm a "it's less the destination than the journey" kind of guy, so even if I know how it's going to end I can still enjoy the ride. I don't really feel I've been robbed. Like Star Wars episode 3; if you ever seen the 1977 Star Wars, you know full well what the ultimate outcome is going to be. I still liked Revwnge of the Sith.

[warty goblin]

But hey, I'm a "it's less the destination than the journey" kind of guy, so even if I know how it's going to end I can still enjoy the ride. I don't really feel I've been robbed. Like Star Wars episode 3; if you ever seen the 1977 Star Wars, you know full well what the ultimate outcome is going to be. I still liked Revwnge of the Sith.

Revenge of the Sith I think works better if you know how it ends; it certainly must have been made under the assumption that everybody watching it would already know roughly how things played out. It's a tragedy, not an adventure, so ideally - and even an Episode III apologist like me will admit that Lucas' execution is far from ideal - most of the movie should run on dread. An enjoyable dread, but it's definitely a things get inevitably worse, not things eventually improve sort of movie. Also an odd modern example of a case where literally the entire audience is by design going to know more or less how things end before they see it.

(The example I can think of that's most similar is the Warcraft movie, which didn't have the benefit of being a prequel to movies everybody had seen, so it basically spoiled the ending before the title screen. And even then had to labor against the weight of genre assumption that war is a fun awesome thing where the heroes show what cool individuals they are by defeating the bad guys. In a lot of fantasy getting invaded by the bad guys is bad, fighting and killing the bad guys is awesome with a very minimal chance of tragic but meaningful death. Warcraft does something really weird by have the good guys on both sides work quite hard and sacrifice a lot to avoid war or at least make eventual peace a possibility, but ultimately completely fail. Not surprisingly, I've found it improves with rewatching when you understand just how the setup to failure works)

[danzibr]

Even worse is when you've found something, usually a show, that's been out for a while, and you've done a pretty good job of making sure to avoid any spoilers that might occur... and then YouTube decides that, because algorithms, you'd be interested in a video titled something like "Y's Death." Or something similarly plot-relevant.

Or, and this one happens a lot to me, if you're trying to go in blind to a new, hyped up video game, you get the videos analyzing every trailer and whatnot, putting exactly whatever's discovered in the title and thumbnail.

I'm generally fine for spoiling things for myself if I know I'm never going to get into something, and I want to be able to at least know what people are discussing. But, all I'm saying is, I want to at least have the choice to walk into things fresh and unsullied.
Oooooohhhh that exact thing's happened to me. The youtube thing. Irritating.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Oooooohhhh that exact thing's happened to me. The youtube thing. Irritating.

Yes. I save one YouTube video of a Steven Universe song, and I get recommended a video of an important scene I haven't reached... but even when I'd caught up on the show, it was still bad for a while! Cartoon Network is bad about putting spoilers in the Steven Universe trailers/previews, but even worse, fans upload them and the thumbnail image is the spoiler.

Thankfully it's stopped flooding me with them by now.

[Aedilred]

I think it's still possible, really. Skyrim was out for many a year before I'd even heard of it, and even having it described to me by an acquaintance I still wound up with a fresh unsullied experience. And got my ass gnawed off by two super wolves. Two. Wolves. It was fun, though.

My point being, you don't really need to go out of your way to avoid spoilers, and it almost seems like the harder you (or I, or anyone) try to avoid them, the more of a magnet you end up for them.

But hey, I'm a "it's less the destination than the journey" kind of guy, so even if I know how it's going to end I can still enjoy the ride. I don't really feel I've been robbed. Like Star Wars episode 3; if you ever seen the 1977 Star Wars, you know full well what the ultimate outcome is going to be. I still liked Revwnge of the Sith.

Well, because of the way things work, if you're completely unaware of something's existence or have no interest in it, someone can tell you the entire plot and it'll go in one ear and out the other unless it piques your interest. Then you can discover it yourself and probably have a pretty unsullied experience because even though you've heard a lot of spoilers, you didn't take them in. Absent context, spoilers are just noise.

But if it's something you are aware of and are planning to engage with, you will notice these things much more, and start picking out details from all sorts of sources. If you are going about your business unaware of the existence of The Lord of the Rings, someone can walk up to you and say "Aragorn dies at the end of Return of the King" and they might as well have said any old gibberish. You'll have forgotten it by the time you get home. If you're halfway into The Fellowship of the Ring and someone says that, that's a major spoiler, because you'll know exactly what they mean. And even if you haven't started it, but are planning to, you're more likely to remember.

And on the spoiler front, prequels operate a little differently, because they are made with the expectation that the vast majority of the audience will know the next part of the story. It is still possible to spoil them, though, if the story in the prequel is in fact something radically different from what might have been expected. What if Revenge of the Sith had revealed that Anakin had killed Obi-Wan and the Obi-Wan we see in the original trilogy is an impostor? You wouldn't want to be told that before watching the film, preposterous as it is.

[-D-]

I like spoilers. I honestly do. Knowing what the plot of a movie, game, book, or whatever helps me enjoy it more, and judge better if I might regret spending time on it.
Plot twists, cool moments, deaths, etc.
And I got to wondering... how common is being like this? Anyone else here find their enjoyment of stories enhanced by "spoilers"? I mean, I do get that there really are plenty of people who dislike them, but then there are the people who are the flipside like me, who seek them out. Though we seem much less common, which can sometimes make finding a good review for stuff that fits my desires harder.:smallredface:
I thought I was the only one...

I like spoilers. I define good movies, as movies I can watch over and over. If a movie relies on a spoiler to work, I dislike the movie.

That said I understand why some people like them. If you know something will happen, it takes a lot of fun out of watching. Essentially, you aren't watching movies, but waiting for them to pass, since you know what will happen.

[Aedilred]

I thought I was the only one...

I like spoilers. I define good movies, as movies I can watch over and over. If a movie relies on a spoiler to work, I dislike the movie.

That said I understand why some people like them. If you know something will happen, it takes a lot of fun out of watching. Essentially, you aren't watching movies, but waiting for them to pass, since you know what will happen.

A movie that relies on a spoiler to work is not quite the same thing as a movie that is improved by watching it unspoiled the first time. Many movies with major twists are worth re-watching multiple times over, but that doesn't mean that the twist doesn't have a big impact when you first see it - and consequently that the overall viewing experience is improved.

I agree that movies which rely entirely or almost entirely on spoilerable twists to work are pretty cheap and my opinion of them isn't all that high (hello over there, M. Night Shyamalan). But I'm still glad that I watched, say, The Usual Suspects or The Prestige unspoiled, because no matter how many times I rewatch it, that first time will always stay with me.

[Winter_Wolf]

On the note of spoilers, my wife like to during the movie or shoe ask me what's going to happen. This is significantly more irritating than having someone divulge a spoiler before going to see something for the first time. Don't believe me? Try being slsubjected to it a few times.

Either I know because I've seen it and deemed it enjoyable enough that I want to see it again, and the asking is ruining by the moment, or I am seeing it for the first time and I have no idea what's actually going to happen but now I'm missing possibly a key point of the show by taking my attention from it to tell her I don't know what's going to happen because I haven't seen it before. Also ruins the moment. Occasionally something is predictable enough that it's all but impossible not to guess what's completely by next with surgical accuracy. The questions still don't enhance the show at all.

[JoshL]

Revenge of the Sith I think works better if you know how it ends

I'm not sure I'd agree with better, though it was certainly designed to work with that in mind (fun fact: while most people knew Anakin was Vader, the Emperor's name was less common general knowledge, so his reveal was more of a surprise to a lot of people). A friend of a friend had kids, and was introducing Star Wars to them. They watched 1 and 2, and the Clone Wars series. They grew up with Anakin being a heroic figure, particularly from the series. Then, when the kids were old enough: Sith. The kids were shocked, I can't even imagine how that must have been. I wish there was some way I could experience the story like that!

100% with you on Warcraft. Not a great movie by any stretch, but way better than it could have been, and more emotionally complex than I was expecting.

[-D-]

A movie that relies on a spoiler to work is not quite the same thing as a movie that is improved by watching it unspoiled the first time. Many movies with major twists are worth re-watching multiple times over, but that doesn't mean that the twist doesn't have a big impact when you first see it - and consequently that the overall viewing experience is improved.

I agree that movies which rely entirely or almost entirely on spoilerable twists to work are pretty cheap and my opinion of them isn't all that high (hello over there, M. Night Shyamalan). But I'm still glad that I watched, say, The Usual Suspects or The Prestige unspoiled, because no matter how many times I rewatch it, that first time will always stay with me.
I don't know. I generally can figure out what happens, halfway through. I didn't watch Usual Suspects, although from Simpsons and other media, I know the shtick. If I like a movie, first isn't that much worse than second.

I wasn't that surprised by The Prestige, ending. So it wasn't really the "wow" moment for me. Sure - twins, whatever. I thought both rivals had Tesla's machine.

[Aedilred]

I'm not sure I'd agree with better, though it was certainly designed to work with that in mind (fun fact: while most people knew Anakin was Vader, the Emperor's name was less common general knowledge, so his reveal was more of a surprise to a lot of people).

This was something of which I was unaware while watching the first film and possibly the second, I'm not sure. At some point I commented to a friend that this guy seemed really dodgy and was surely up to no good, and they stared at me in disbelief before telling me what most people already knew. But having only watched the original trilogy, not paid close attention to the credits, or experienced any of the secondary media or the like, I was genuinely unaware of the character's name. So while it would not have been a surprise to see that play out in real time without hearing about it first since I'd already twigged something was up, it would certainly have been something "new" to me.